Best Professional Desktop "Workstation" with powerful 2013 latest configuration

I want to buy Best Professional Desktop "Workstation" with powerful 2013 latest configuration...because i am a 3D modeler/character designer
and my purpose is Hardcore modeling and sculpting,rendering.,.and some time gaming also..?

so here i found some configuration,,so what you all say,,,about this ? and please suggest best for me ?

- Intel core i7 Extreme 3970x or intel core i7 Extreme 3960x

- Asus Rampage IV Extreme

- Nvidia geforce GTX 690 or 680 or Quadro series

- coolermaster cosmos II

- corsair AX1200i

- corsair H100i

- 32GB corsair vengeance 1600mhz or anything best

- 3TB HDD seagate 7200 rpm

- 250GB SSD samsung 840 pro

(This configuration is just an example for me)

- 1st - My Budget is around 3000-4000$.
- 2nd- Remember one thing I want to build a future proof workstation.
- 3rd- what about Xeon CPUs.? some people says go for xeon,,? so,,,what you all think ?
- 4th- or wait for some newly launched component,,?

i am confused about that, so you all give me Advice / suggestion.
Because, I'll spend the big amount.,,,feel free to suggest me,,,,Thanks to all in Advance

i would recommend two of these instead of the 3960x. this will give you twice the number of cores and threads and will be more future proof for your demanding tasks. plus these run cooler and are more energy efficient so you can use air coolers like a 212 evo instead of an h100i:

get as much ram as you can. i would suggest trying to get 64gb. you can also get a smaller power supply. an 850w would be more than enough. also, unless you are in love with that case, there are better options that are significantly cheaper with better features. for example the nzxt switch 810.

i would recommend two of these instead of the 3960x. this will give you twice the number of cores and threads and will be more future proof for your demanding tasks. plus these run cooler and are more energy efficient so you can use air coolers like a 212 evo instead of an h100i:

get as much ram as you can. i would suggest trying to get 64gb. you can also get a smaller power supply. an 850w would be more than enough. also, unless you are in love with that case, there are better options that are significantly cheaper with better features. for example the nzxt switch 810.

I see your reasoning for that, but I don't completely agree. While dual socket E5-2630's do give you twice the cores for a not-bad value, I would say that very good single threaded performance could be important to your workflow as well. In my opinion, the best value is a 3960/3970/3930 overclocked to around 4.6GHz. That gives you nearly the same multithreaded performance as two E5-2630's, while giving you phenomenally better single threaded performance.

Never heard of someone needing that much RAM, but I suppose it can't hurt!
I agree that a smaller power supply would be more than sufficient.

For the chassis, I would say that is personal taste. The Cosmos II is (in my personal opinion) beautiful in a way that the Switch 810 can't be. I do agree it is a more practical case though.

Now for graphics cards: It would be worth finding out if your applications can benefit from Quadro graphics. If so, go that route considering your budget. Otherwise, a GTX 680 will do you extremely well. Maybe post in the nvidia section asking specifically about it.

I see your reasoning for that, but I don't completely agree. While dual socket E5-2630's do give you twice the cores for a not-bad value, I would say that very good single threaded performance could be important to your workflow as well. In my opinion, the best value is a 3960/3970/3930 overclocked to around 4.6GHz. That gives you nearly the same multithreaded performance as two E5-2630's, while giving you phenomenally better single threaded performance.

Never heard of someone needing that much RAM, but I suppose it can't hurt!
I agree that a smaller power supply would be more than sufficient.

For the chassis, I would say that is personal taste. The Cosmos II is (in my personal opinion) beautiful in a way that the Switch 810 can't be. I do agree it is a more practical case though.

Now for graphics cards: It would be worth finding out if your applications can benefit from Quadro graphics. If so, go that route considering your budget. Otherwise, a GTX 680 will do you extremely well. Maybe post in the nvidia section asking specifically about it.

Almost all the software he listed is GPU accelerated so I would definitely recommend a Quadro from a modelling/rendering POV. However if the OP wants to do some occasional gaming as well, then perhaps a GeForce card is the way to go.

However OP, I have a question for you.

-What type of character modelling do you do? As in, is it for games or film?
-What sort of poly counts are we talking about here?
-Do you use ray tracing?

Giving a little more detail as to the level of detail we are talking about will help dictate whether you would truly benefit from two Xeon's along with a Quadro card or if you should head down the i7 and GeForce/AMD HD route. It will also help determine the amount of RAM that would be desirable.

Obviously if you are doing modelling and rendering for film, then I would almost definitely get a pair of Xeon's and a Quadro FX GPU. But if you are mostly modelling for games where poly counts are lower and lack of ray tracing etc. then it might be more economical to go for an i7 rig

go for a 3930k its much cheaper and is the exact same chip except it has a little less L3 cache. also as for a case I would go for a corsair C70 or something with nice features and good airflow. as stated above your PSU is definitely overkill go for something like an HX-850 or an OCZ-ZX850W

that's the roughly a base i'd go off, don't take it for gospel...change whatever you like. there's no need for a rampage or 32GB for character modeling/rendering.
i guess if you want "middle of the road" or didn't want to go with a GeForce AND a quadro, a single card solution you could go for is a HD7970, but a GeForce with a Quadro would essentially work better.
there's thread on here from a while back where someone was inquiring about running both a GeForce and Quadro in the same rig...while i haven't tried with newer tech (6xx and kepler quadros) i can say it worked for me with 5xx and fermi quadros.

2 - future proof 3d workstation? you can model perfectly fine today on a q6600 and 8800 gtx or lower spec'd rigs...point i'm making is; your workstation is as efficient as you are.

3 - i wouldn't bother with xeon cpus...generally you'll benefit more from core speed, so an overclocked i7 would be better.

4 - by all means, you can wait for newer cpus or graphics cards...but what'll that net you? a couple of seconds off your render times or a couple more frames in the viewport? get to modeling!

what monitors are you planning on using?Edited by s0d0mg0m0rrah - 2/12/13 at 6:03pm

Almost all the software he listed is GPU accelerated so I would definitely recommend a Quadro from a modelling/rendering POV. However if the OP wants to do some occasional gaming as well, then perhaps a GeForce card is the way to go.

However OP, I have a question for you.

-What type of character modelling do you do? As in, is it for games or film?
-What sort of poly counts are we talking about here?
-Do you use ray tracing?

Giving a little more detail as to the level of detail we are talking about will help dictate whether you would truly benefit from two Xeon's along with a Quadro card or if you should head down the i7 and GeForce/AMD HD route. It will also help determine the amount of RAM that would be desirable.

Obviously if you are doing modelling and rendering for film, then I would almost definitely get a pair of Xeon's and a Quadro FX GPU. But if you are mostly modelling for games where poly counts are lower and lack of ray tracing etc. then it might be more economical to go for an i7 rig

First of all,,,Thanks for your reply :-)

- Actually,i am working with organic / inorganic both with multi millions polys.in zbrush and Mudbox.
and most of my works is for my personal portfolio,because its my hobby.right now i am not working for any films and games studio.but I want to work on further similar.
So I do not want some kind of Compromise in configuration...
- Low polys models and of course high polys also.
- ya,i use ray tracing.

so suggest Best,,with (company / model vise) because this will help me,,,,,

that's the roughly a base i'd go off, don't take it for gospel...change whatever you like. there's no need for a rampage or 32GB for character modeling/rendering.
i guess if you want "middle of the road" or didn't want to go with a GeForce AND a quadro, a single card solution you could go for is a HD7970, but a GeForce with a Quadro would essentially work better.
there's thread on here from a while back where someone was inquiring about running both a GeForce and Quadro in the same rig...while i haven't tried with newer tech (6xx and kepler quadros) i can say it worked for me with 5xx and fermi quadros.

2 - future proof 3d workstation? you can model perfectly fine today on a q6600 and 8800 gtx or lower spec'd rigs...point i'm making is; your workstation is as efficient as you are.

3 - i wouldn't bother with xeon cpus...generally you'll benefit more from core speed, so an overclocked i7 would be better.

4 - by all means, you can wait for newer cpus or graphics cards...but what'll that net you? a couple of seconds off your render times or a couple more frames in the viewport? get to modeling!

what monitors are you planning on using?

Thanks,,for reply

- I am not a novice, I'm doing it from many years!

- ( what monitors are you planning on using,,,? ) suggest According to my purpose,,Which is right for me...

No need for a Quadro since you are only doing it for a hobby and sounds like you are mostly doing high-poly for baking textures. Also, I chose two AMD HD7970GE GPU's to use in crossfire, these are stronger compute GPU's than Nvidia GTX680's and are just as powerful for gaming. Even though some of the applications you use are CUDA accelerated, the GTX680 has such weak compute performance that the HD7970's in crossfire will outperform a pair of GTX680's for use in Maya/3DS etc.

16GB of 2133MHz ram should be more than enough for you and I got you a 1440p Dell IPS monitor so you have more screen real estate when making textures in PS and the like

I've also chucked in a mechnical Das Ultimate S keyboard and a Logitech G500 gaming mouse

Hopefully that helps you out mate!

EDIT: Brought the PSU up to an 850w SeaSonic unit (excellent PSU's) and I threw in another 2TB HDD so you have 4TB of total storage and uprated the SSD to a 250GB unit for more storage space for your applications + OS.Edited by Vengeance47 - 2/14/13 at 2:08am

No need for a Quadro since you are only doing it for a hobby and sounds like you are mostly doing high-poly for baking textures. Also, I chose two AMD HD7970GE GPU's to use in crossfire, these are stronger compute GPU's than Nvidia GTX680's and are just as powerful for gaming. Even though some of the applications you use are CUDA accelerated, the GTX680 has such weak compute performance that the HD7970's in crossfire will outperform a pair of GTX680's for use in Maya/3DS etc.

16GB of 2133MHz ram should be more than enough for you and I got you a 1440p Dell monitor so you have more screen real estate when making textures in PS and the like

I've also chucked in a mechnical Das Ultimate S keyboard and a Logitech G500 gaming mouse

Hopefully that helps you out mate!

P.S: Don't worry about the site saying that the 750w PSU is not powerful enough. 750w is more than enough for that rig. Especially an excellent quality PSU like the Seasonic unit I listed

I like that setup. While you are spending that much money though, a 120gb SSD seems a little small (I have managed to fill up my SSD even with most apps and games on the hard drive). I think a 240 or 256GB SSD would be nice to have.
Also, I'm skeptical of the power supply. While that is a top quality unit, the numbers concern me. 300W for each GHz edition, 130W+ for the CPU, 20W for the board, 20W for everything else... You are over 750W right there. I'd recommend a similar model but at 850W.
Edit: I guess it is more like 200W for each GHz edition, so I suppose it could work. Not a lot of OC headroom though.Edited by frogger4 - 2/13/13 at 10:05am